Group 3 Opening Sequence Pitch.MOV

Split Opening Sequence - Finished

Preliminary Task

Due to an unexpected loss of our first preliminary Task, we have had to change the original idea as we didn't have enough time to re-film the old one as it took quite some time before and the area we used was quite busy at the time as it was the school lunch time when we realised that we had lost the footage. This then meant that we had to quickly plan and film another video so that we were able to meet our deadline.

Alterations

Due to the unexpected departure of our main actor and also group Nile O-Meally Newell we have had a few difficulties in fixing errors that are in our opening sequence as we are unable to re-film the footage without our character.

prelim task

Split - Opening Sequence

Evaluation 7

If we were to compare the editing and the recording of the Split film and the preliminary task, we would notice that the prelimnary task had a lot of errors and we have improved these in the split film because we now had experience in how to use the hardware, software and the angles involved in making a good scene. Also when it came to editing the film we were much better at it as there was less continuity errors in the split opening sequence.

Evaluation 5

For us to be able to attract the right audience for our opening sequence, we had to enter tags that were highly related to the film such as 'grime music', 'gangs', 'football' and a few common films  (e.g. kidulthood, shank, one day, this is england etc.) that have the same genre as ours. this would have then made our film available to a wider range of people which means that we are most likely to get some feedback.

 

 

 

Evaluation 6 - Processes used, while making the film



We used twitter to communicate with members of the team and also the rest of the group about the production of the film and also to give each other feedback and help each other we camera angles that would be relevant to better the film and make it look professional.

We used the camera to film the scenes that would go into our opening sequence and we also used the camera to take pictures of the group working as part of our 'behind the scenes' footage.

Youtube was the website that we used to watch other opening sequences and to try find a song that would go well with our opening sequence as we hadn't composed our own. We also used youtube to upload our opening sequence onto, so that we could get some feedback on our film which would help us improve our skills in the future.

Blogger was used as sort of our 'Diary or note book' as we entered all the research results that we had found on it and we also entered out ideas for our opening sequence so that we could get some feedback on them. However Blogger was used multiple times during the production of the film as we had to write everything that we done on it which would help us keep track of what we had to do next and to remind us  if we were on track to meet our deadline.

Adobe Premiere was used as much other than when we edited the film, including all its sounds, transaction, colour corrections and so on. Although it werent used much, it played a very big role during the making of our opening sequence as it allowed us to change all the clips, put them together, add text and resulted with a film which i would say was good enough to inform the audience the moral of the story.

Photoshop was used quite a few times to create the cover for our film and also to make a 'nine frame analysis' during the the film evaluation.

The Mac was the most common hardware that we used during the making of the whole opening sequence as it allowed us to use the different softwares that we require to edit the film and also to plan the film such as 'researching opening sequences similar to ours' and many more things involved in the production of a film.

Evaluation 2 - How our media product represents a particual social group?

Our film represents a teenage social group that have been raised in tough areas of England and some of these teenagers retain a lot of talent and skills but cannot pursue a positive career in their life because of the bad influences/peer pressure sorrounding them. However this is shown in our opening sequence as the main character happens to be quite talented in football )which is probably the most paying sport in the UK) and also has an educated side of him but he struggles to concetrate on these too possible future careers as he has been involved in gang crime before and the gang he thought was a good choice to join before, doesn't want to let him go.

Nile Ranger current Newcastle Fc Player is a very talented football player just like the character we have included in our opening sequence.

However Nial Ranger is not only a football player but he was once involved in crime before as he grew up in the streets of london and just before he got signed to professional football, Nile was arrested and saved 11weeks in a young offender institute for being involved in a armed street robbery.

This again is an imagine of Nile ranger in a suit which makes him look more academic and this too has influence the third side of our character in the opening sequence of our film SPLIT.

Evaluation Activity 4 - Target Audience

Our Target audience would be teenagers that are well common with the streets and have been raised in the council estates as some of them might relate to the film. Their clothing style would be sporty, caps, hoods and are mainly referred as 'ASBO' or 'Chav's. They would listen to the type of music that isn't commercial such as grime music, which is aggressive and is formally accused of promoting violence, however some may be interested in old school hip hop and some new school as these types of characters are only interested in music that has lyrics that interest to them. their favourite TV programme's would of those that involve crime, horrors and basically films or stuff that is filmed and has gangs or violence involved. Although this film would contain violence, it will influence some of the audience to turn their life around and leave the gang culture. Examples of films they could be interested in are American gangster, One Day, Adulthood, Kidulthood and any other film of the gang culture nature.

Evaluation Activity 3 - Distribution

Our film would be distributed by an organisation such as Vertigo Films as their films have been successful in the UK, also the films that have inspired by our film have been distributed by Vertigo, which means that our film could be successful too, as they tend to deal with films with the same genre as our film. However another company that could distribute our film is pathe pictures international , as they are the ones that distributed adulthood which was a quite successful film.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Incomplete

Our film was influence by the film Kidulthood by Noel Clarke, as it it focused on a teenager who is involved in multiple things such as gang culture. Since our film was inspired by kidulthood, we made some of our ideas from their film and this is shown by the 9frame analysis below:

Understanding camera shots/angles/movement in general

Extreme long-shot:
Used to express the setting of the scene that will be used as the setting throughout a movie (e.g. by showing the "Hollywood" sign in the picture above in an extreme long-shot for a movie, it is clear to the viewer that the movie will be indeed set in Hollywood/Los Angeles).

Tracking shot:

A 'tracking shot' is when a shot is taken by keeping track of something in particular (e.g. if somebody is walking, the camera will keep movement but also keep track of the person's own movements -- this is a tracking shot).

Bird's Eye View:
Filmed from a top-down perspective and, once again, more likely to be used to show the atmosphere of the setting (e.g. if a bird's eye view was taken of NYC and Miami -- they would use bird's eye view shots to highlight the gritty streets or the busy metropolis of NYC/humid and sun-filled beaches of Miami etc.)

Low Angle Shot:
Filmed from the ground looking upwards -- for example, a camera shot which is taken of a person but from the ground looking upwards therefore making him appear as some sort of 'giant' or having some form of superiority.

Close-up:

Panning:
Movement of a still/video camera but in the motion of a person shaking their head to signal a "no", meaning that panning is the horizontal movement of a camera.

Tilting:

In a simple explanation, tilting is the movement of a still/video camera yet it moves as if a person would when nodding his head (in other words, the camera stays stationary yet it rotates in a vertical plane).

Crew and Cast of Opening Sequence

Nile O'Meally-Newell: Bradley "Keano" Kean (protagonist)
Shingai Manungo: Cameraman
Liban Ali: Tyreese Lewis (friend turned into the main antagonist)
Omar Abasi: Editor

Production Company Name/Logo

The production company name that we are going to use is a custom production company name that is called Eagle Eye Productions. The reason that I wanted to create a production company that hasn't been used before or is an existing production company is because our movie, Split, takes inspiration from a mixture of movies with different types of genres such as Goal (which takes on an aspirational football genre) and the Kidulthood/Adulthood film series (which takes on a drama genre) and since Split is a movie that takes on a storyline that hasn't been duplicated or used in any other film before, I decided to also invent a production name for the movie too so that it could blend well with the refreshing feel that Split would give to the audience.

The colours are pretty much simple which is what I had tried to go for with the production company logo since the mood, atmosphere and synopsis of the movie are all pretty simple and to create a complex production logo would contrast the film and opening sequence itself so this is why I had decided to go with red and black with a white background in my production company logo as these three colours are not only primary colours but also plain colours.

Background Music for Opening Sequence

We searched for songs that would blend well with the purpose and genre of Split as it is a drama/football movie so we were thinking of choosing a particular song that would represent the main character, being Bradley "Keano" Kean, as a person who wants to be the best in the world at what he loves to do (which is football) yet he also wants to finish his education by passing all of his exams with results that would take him on a sailing boat to University but the gang life he wants to leave is slowly pulling him back in so in other words, a motivational song would best suit the opening sequence as it would motivate Keano to leave his 'crime life', aspire his 'football' lifestyle and revise for his exams so that he can exceed his expectations.

The first song that sounded like it would have fit with our description of the BGM for our opening sequence was 'Kanye West - Runaway' but the instrumental without the hook. However, when we actually used it as the background music for the opening sequence, it didn't really work well with it as the instrumental had a slow but brutal beat to it whereas there is the football scene in the opening sequence that shows a change of pace as Nile O-Meally Newell is swiftly dribbling his way around football cones so we realized that we needed a faster instrumental.

Opening sequence ideas

After group discussions and agreements, we had decided not to go with the initial opening sequence ideas at all and had decided to think of a totally different plot, characters and genre in particular. The reasons that I felt that the initial opening sequence analysis would not have worked is because the "thriller" genre is particularly difficult to nail and considering that there were some parts of it made little sense meant that we needed to think of an opening sequence that the audience would fully understand and be engaged in from start to end.

The opening sequence is going to be filmed in different areas in comparison to my initial opening sequence idea (which was simply going to be filmed inside the school premises only) and the locations for the opening sequence will be in the Astroturf, the Pool Meadow alleyway and the school cafe which will be used for when Keano revises for his upcoming exams. 

The scene will start off with the production company logo (e.g. "Metro-Goldwyn Mayer presents") and then that brief production company scene will lead to the next scene being Nile (Keano) who will be fixing up his tie as he's ready to go to school. The next scene will be followed by a different production company presenting the opening sequence (e.g. "An Hourglass Times Production") and then the brief scene will lead to the next one being Liban (Tyreese) walking towards Keano as Keano's revising for his exams and Tyreese will try and convince Keano to finish revising at that moment and go with him but Bradley will refuse which leads to Liban leaving the scene. The scene after that will be the introduction of the characters' names (e.g. "NILE O-MEALLY NEWELL and LIBAN ALI") for a mere number of seconds before Nile will be putting on his football kit before looking in the mirror once more as the camera takes a tracking shot from top-to-bottom showing his Nike socks. 

The next scene will be him dribbling over 7 football cones before taking one more step and then blasting the football into the back of the net. The introduction of more characters' names will appear after that scene which will then lead to Keano dressing up in a black bomber hoodie as he is ready to rendezvous with the gang and the next scenes will be him meeting up with the gang before the title of the movie appears as the final scene ("SPLIT").

Mood Board

This is the mood board for the topic we are doing as "Split" will include football themes which are evident in the pictures of the Nike kit which Nile O'Meally Newell uses in the opening sequence and throughout the start of the film before he digs in deeper by trying to get into Arsenal and the football pitch which is similar to the Astroturf where we had filmed our football scene from the opening sequence that will also be used as a location in the 'Split' movie as Bradley Keano attempts to rise from being the school star player to superstardom by playing in the Emirates Stadium.

Other themes are also present in this mood board such as the gang pictures which represent Keano's life as a gang member and the Union Jack flag which represents the fact that the filming will take place in Britain and the gangs that will be present in the movie will be British gangs. This means that the 'Split' movie will not take on different gang cultures but attempt to include British gang culture in the movie only.

Audience Expectations from Genre of Film

Since our genre of movie will be particularly hard to execute and keep refreshing as the same ideas have been recycled and used in previous movies such as Kidulthood, Adulthood, Anuvahood and Shank and over the time that had passed, each movie had been receiving less favourable reviews from the audience meaning that there is nothing new brought to those movies as even the storylines of those movies bear many similarities. 

With that being noted, that is why Split's storyline is a storyline played from three 'perspectives' but all played by the main protagonist (Bradley Keano) where an equal amount of time will be spent fleshing out the football character, gang member character and academic character so that none of these three personalities are felt by the audience as not being able to be fully fleshed-out or leaving any 'plotholes' in the movie as any questions that are unanswered about any of these personalities would leave the audience being questionable too.